For October 8–December 31, La Push (NOAA 9442396) has 12 minus-tide windows with at least 30 minutes of daylight overlap. Port Townsend (9444900) and Seattle (9447130) have none left in that period. These are Tidewindow's three Washington reference stations, not every beach in the state. Overlap is not daylight at the low: 11 of La Push's 12 lows occur after sunset. These are prediction comparisons, not access guarantees.
Which Washington coast should you pick?
| Destination | NOAA reference | What distinguishes it | Detailed guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second Beach, Olympic outer coast | La Push · 9442396 | Forest-trail approach and sea stacks; remaining minus-tide windows have daylight overlap before evening lows | La Push / Second Beach |
| Fort Worden, entrance to Puget Sound | Port Townsend · 9444900 | State-park beaches; its qualifying 2026 daylight windows ended October 7 | Port Townsend / Fort Worden |
| Constellation Park, Alki Point | Seattle · 9447130 | City shoreline within Charles Richey Sr Viewpoint; 2026 daylight minus tides are over | Constellation Park / Seattle |
These are reference-station predictions, not measurements at every rock pool. For a trip with fixed dates, use the Trip Picker; for the next available outing, use the tide-window finder. The Washington beaches hub brings all three stations together.
September 9–12: a morning run, now past
The September 9–12 morning run was much shallower than July's at these three stations. Within that run, Seattle and Port Townsend had negative morning lows through Thursday September 10; La Push carried the run into Saturday September 12. The table is retained as a comparison, not a plan.
| Date | La Push · 9442396 | Port Townsend · 9444900 | Seattle · 9447130 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed Sep 9 | −1.14 ft at 5:52 AM | −0.68 ft at 9:08 AM | −0.86 ft at 10:04 AM |
| Thu Sep 10 | −1.04 ft at 6:33 AM | −0.08 ft at 9:52 AM | −0.35 ft at 10:51 AM |
| Fri Sep 11 | −0.69 ft at 7:10 AM | Morning low is above zero | Morning low is above zero |
| Sat Sep 12 | −0.13 ft at 7:45 AM | No daylight minus-tide window | No daylight minus-tide window |
Computed September 8, 2026 from NOAA station predictions in the daily fact sheets and re-verified row for row on October 8; retained as history. Heights are feet relative to MLLW; times are local Pacific time. A qualifying daylight window here means the below-+1.0-ft interval overlaps daylight by at least 30 minutes, not necessarily that the low itself occurs after sunrise.
Seattle's Wednesday window scored 65, Good, with 195 minutes of daylight overlap. Port Townsend's scored 62, Good, with 245 minutes. At La Push, Friday scored 57, Fair, while Saturday scored 54, Fair: its −0.13 ft low only just crossed the minus-tide line. The early La Push Wednesday low had just 67 minutes of daylight overlap, despite being deeper. Depth alone does not make a better outing.
See the complete September calendars for Seattle, Port Townsend, and La Push. Use the live finder rather than treating this dated run as upcoming.
Remaining 2026 windows: outer-coast evenings
The October 8 fact sheets cover July 1–December 31, 2026. Filtering the full modeled-window data to October 8–December 31 gives the remaining comparison below. A qualifying daylight window has at least 30 minutes of daylight within the below-+1.0-ft interval; a minus-tide window also has a low below 0 ft.
- Seattle: no qualifying daylight windows remain in 2026, whether the low is negative or positive. Its last two, October 5–6, had positive lows and scored Skip; both are now past. Night lows still occur.
- Port Townsend: no qualifying daylight windows remain in 2026. Its October 5 minus-tide window and October 6–7 positive-low windows are now past. Night lows still occur; this is not a count of all low tides.
- La Push: 19 qualifying daylight windows remain, including 12 minus-tide windows and seven with positive lows. Every remaining minus-tide window is listed below; only December 21 has the low itself before sunset.
| Date | Low (La Push · 9442396) | Daylight overlap | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sat Oct 10 | −0.38 ft at 7:14 PM | 59 min | 43, Fair |
| Sun Oct 25 | −0.71 ft at 6:48 PM | 71 min | 52, Fair |
| Mon Oct 26 | −1.34 ft at 7:29 PM | 40 min | 49, Fair |
| Sat Nov 7 | −0.19 ft at 5:20 PM | 61 min | 38, Skip |
| Sun Nov 8 | −0.55 ft at 5:57 PM | 35 min | 41, Fair |
| Sun Nov 22 | −0.42 ft at 4:45 PM | 89 min | 47, Fair |
| Mon Nov 23 | −1.27 ft at 5:29 PM | 63 min | 50, Fair |
| Tue Nov 24 | −1.84 ft at 6:14 PM | 32 min | 56, Fair |
| Sun Dec 6 | −0.11 ft at 5:05 PM | 51 min | 34, Skip |
| Mon Dec 21 | −0.66 ft at 4:26 PM | 113 min | 45, Fair |
| Tue Dec 22 | −1.45 ft at 5:15 PM | 79 min | 55, Fair |
| Wed Dec 23 | −1.97 ft at 6:03 PM | 39 min | 59, Fair |
Recomputed October 8, 2026 from NOAA station predictions in the daily fact sheets and complete modeled-window data. Daylight overlap is the portion of the below-+1.0-ft interval before sunset; on every date here except December 21, the low itself occurs after sunset. On December 21 the −0.66 ft low lands at 4:26 PM, two minutes before the 4:28 PM sunset.
The deepest of these, Wednesday December 23 at −1.97 ft, is also the deepest daylight-overlapping low remaining among these three reference stations in 2026 — and it still scores only 59, Fair, because just 39 minutes of its window fall before the 4:29 PM sunset. Nothing remaining at any of the three stations reaches the Good band. A qualifying daylight interval is a calculation, not a recommendation for an evening outing or confirmation that a shore is accessible.
For the inland picture, continue to the Puget Sound low-tide calendar. The Washington king-tides guide covers the separate winter high-tide story; a king-tide date is not a promise of a usable daytime low.
Recently passed lows, retained for comparison
These rows appeared in the previous remaining-season comparison. They are now historical, not upcoming choices.
| Date | Station | Low | Daylight overlap | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Sep 27 | La Push · 9442396 | −0.41 ft at 7:49 PM, after sunset | 51 min | 45, Fair |
| Mon Oct 5 | Port Townsend · 9444900 | −0.23 ft at 5:48 AM, before sunrise | 39 min | 27, Skip |
July and August: useful comparisons, now past
The deepest daylight-overlapping lows in our July 1–December 31 records occurred on July 14 at all three stations. These are not full-year records: the dataset's covered dates start July 1.
| Station | Historical low · July 14, 2026 | Local low time |
|---|---|---|
| La Push · 9442396 | −3.00 ft | 7:15 AM |
| Port Townsend · 9444900 | −3.48 ft | 10:25 AM |
| Seattle · 9447130 | −3.80 ft | 11:20 AM |
Rechecked against the October 8 fact sheets; these are past predictions retained as a comparison.
On that date, the Port Townsend low was 3 hours 10 minutes later than La Push, and Seattle was 4 hours 5 minutes later than La Push. That is why a single statewide tide time is not enough; the difference is date-dependent, not a fixed offset to reuse.
Sunday August 9 was the best-scoring August window at Port Townsend (−2.05 ft at 7:38 AM, score 100) and Seattle (−1.91 ft at 8:29 AM, score 98). Both are past, as is the September run. The remaining-2026 table above is the current planning comparison, and its shallower evening lows are not interchangeable with that summer exposure.
Access checks before choosing a beach
Mora Road status, checked October 16: the NPS road-status page lists the road as Open, updated October 15. The older conditions page, updated October 13, still carries the July 8–October 15 construction notice. The newer road report does not establish current beach, trail or Hole-in-the-Wall passage conditions; the La Push guide links the differing reports and NPS route information.
Second Beach has separate access and parking. NPS lists a 0.7-mile forest-and-beach trail and a $10 daily fee for parking on Quileute Tribal Lands, including Second Beach, effective May 1, 2026. Its tidepooling page includes Second Beach among the park's intertidal destinations. This is not a Discover Pass parking arrangement.
Fort Worden and Constellation Park are different jurisdictions. Washington State Parks lists Discover Pass parking at Fort Worden. Seattle Parks places Constellation Park within Charles Richey Sr Viewpoint, along Beach Drive SW at Alki Point. Use those official pages for current destination details.
These are tide predictions, not observations. The computed intervals are not access or safety guarantees. The methodology explains the threshold, daylight overlap and score; current official park notices remain separate from the tide calculation.